


Parley with the Silence

by DaniMotherFreakingGlitter



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Davenport and Merle for example, Inspired by the Ango McDango Protango Squango, It's the Silence instead of the Hunger, Lucretia and John switch places as well as other characters, M/M, Roleswap, This is my first Taz fic so don't kill me, This is not TrainWreckGenerator's swap au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 18:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11926863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniMotherFreakingGlitter/pseuds/DaniMotherFreakingGlitter
Summary: A brief summary of the (thought to be) last time Davenport speaks to the Silence. It...doesn't go well(Read the tags if you're confused)





	Parley with the Silence

It was a normal occasion, one that Davenport had grown used to over the years of doing so. He would leave Kravitz to fly the Starblaster as he initiated Parley with Lucretia, the personification and creator of the plane-devouring enigma known to the crew as the Silence. He would then make small-talk, try to learn as much as he could about the Silence, and then let Lucretia kill him. He’d wake up the next year and tell Merle everything he’d learned, and Merle would write it down in a journal that he had made himself. He would have brought this information to John, the motivational director and chronicler for the Starblaster, but Davenport and Merle shared a better connection and Merle could understand Davenport in ways nobody could. But for now, Davenport and Lucretia were playing their normal game of checkers. After a bit of play, Lucretia speaks.

“May I go first?” she asks, moving her piece forward. Davenport nods. Lucretia grinned and took a drink of water before speaking, “Wonderful, because the curiosity is more than I can bear, though I know it isn’t very useful to me, what do you call me, Davenport? What do the seven of you call me?” She asked. “Well, Lup has recently been calling you ‘gauche’. I don’t know what that means, but maybe you do?” “Nice to know, but what is the name for what I am?” she asks again. “Oh, that’s simple. Our chronicler, John, came up with it, so we call you...the Silence.” Davenport says nervously. Lucretia chuckles at the name. “The Silence.” she repeats. “Yeah…” Davenport says, breaking eye contact. “I quite like that, though it’s a tad inaccurate. Nevertheless, is there anything you’d like to know?” Lucretia asked, and Davenport turned back to her. “Ah, well, yes and no. It’s not a question I’m asking for me, but rather my...friend-” “Your boyfriend, you mean?” Lucretia cut in with a grin, causing Davenport to blush a pale red. “Fine, yes, anyway, he wants to know...are you my friend, Lucretia?” Davenport asks. In an instant, Lucretia’s smile was gone and she was out of her chair, hand engulfed in black flames and reaching in Davenport’s direction. And after a beat, Lucretia pulled her hand back. “What am I doing?” she asked herself softly, stepping away from the table and turning towards the window at the constant sunset outside.

For a minute or so, there was silence. Then Lucretia spoke again. “To have friendship requires a person to love another person and be...invested in the happiness shared between them. And I don’t know if I can do that. I certainly couldn’t before I became this so I doubt I could do it now, but even if I could I don’t really want to, because compared to me, Davenport, friendship and happiness, are both just so small. Compared to how big I’ve made myself, they’re barely got an inch on me. But I am curious. What brings you joy, Davenport? I know the game is over and all, but please, humor me on this. What makes you happy?” Lucretia asked.

Davenport thought about his answer. “What makes me happy? Well, there’s a lot of things I could tell you: being captain of a ship, playing cards with Merle, good wine, bird watching. But I think the best thing to sum up all of those things is just...life. I find joy in almost every part of my life. It’s kind of a choice you make, you choose to experience happiness. And that way, no matter what bad things happen, you can find the joy in it. I’ve honestly enjoyed getting to know you, Lucretia. I enjoy playing checkers with you, and talking to you, and- well, not getting killed so many times, haven’t really enjoyed that- but I’ve found joy in life, because in the end, what else do you have besides the joy you found and the joy you gave others?” Davenport asked happily.

“I think there was a time where I had...experienced joy. Fleeting happiness, or anger or even fear, but God, Davenport, it’s just been so long. I used to spend my days… pondering ascendance. Maybe that brought me joy, once, but unlike everyone else who considers the probability of ascendance, I kept thinking about it, and I saw no reason that I couldn’t become greater than what I was. Greater, even, than what everything was. I was the first person, and only person, at least to my knowledge, to work so hard to achieve greatness, that they changed everything in the process. Davenport, you’re a normal person, surely you’ve thought of where we go when we di- oh, what am I saying? I’ve given you a first-hand experience several times over!” Lucretia laughs. “Some people find relief in believing there’s nothing but… infinite oblivion. Or maybe living forever in their God’s domain, or cycling through every person in their world, and they’re all fine from a human’s view, but what about a god’s? What about something greater than a god? What would eternity do for that? The only way to know is, of course, experimentation. I made a hypothesis: can a human being become bigger than everything, and I tested it out and I didn’t stop until my hypothesis was confirmed. I was right, I made myself become right. And then, I needed to be bigger than just my Plane of Existence, I needed to be bigger than my Planar System, than every Planar System in reality, and bigger than those that crafted those planes. The ones who crafted the crafters of existence, and so on and so forth until there was nothing left, until I was...ultimate.” Lucretia said, chuckling after she realized that she had been rambling.

“Lucretia...I don’t think I should be here anymore.” Davenport said cautiously. “I think we should stop this now. You can go on, rising to power or whatever, but I’m gonna take off now. But if we ever meet again, you can tell me your hypothesis was wrong.” He said with a sarcastic grin. 

“You don’t believe that I did it.” Lucretia said. Davenport blinked, confused. Lucretia stood up. “I know what you’re thinking. You don’t believe that a single person could be so focused on something that it could change everything around them. I promised I wouldn’t lie to you, Davenport, and I always keep my promises. Just like I kept my promise to myself that I would become something greater than an insignificant librarian on a world where knowledge was no longer power. I made all of this happen. I made everyone, literally everyone, in my world merge into a single being focused on becoming better than all. My ambition and determination covered my world like a blanket, until everything, every bird, every tree and blade of grass and grain of sand was a part of me.” Lucretia turned to the window, and Davenport saw the scene outside changing. The constant sunset sky was losing color, until every shade of pink and red and orange and purple and blue just became...gray. Gray, as every world turned when the Silence consumed it. “Look at it, Dav. I did this, all on my own. I changed my entire plane into something new by my own willpower.” Lucretia said, her gaze transfixed on the scene outside the window. 

Lucretia turned to Davenport and said, “You say I’m called the Silence? I don’t think that fits, per se, because I don’t want to silence anything, and I don’t want to be silenced. A better name for me would probably be...well, I’ve used Lucretia all my life, but I understand there’s not really any power behind that. It would be most accurate to call me...Betterment. But soon-” she raises her ignited hand in Davenport’s direction, a maniacal glint in her eyes and a smug grin on her face, “you will call me Ascendant.”

“Well,” Davenport starts, rising from his chair at last, “we’ll see about that. Thank you for the game, Lucretia, but I think this is the last we’ll be talking. Goodbye, and go to hell, you self-absorbed smartass.” he finished with a snarl. All at once, Lucretia’s smile turned into a frown. “Hmm.” she made a sort of noncommittal noise. “I feel sad.” And with that, Lucretia tightened her hand into a fist, and Davenport was dead in a second.

Davenport awoke at the Starblaster’s hull as he did at the beginning of every year. He gave John a thumbs up for flying the ship out and then walked to Merle’s room to tell Merle about this final parley.

†††

Fifty-four years of running from the Silence and twelve years of living in one world, Davenport and Julia were heading down to Fisher’s chamber in the elevator. After their quick encounter with the Silence. They were making small talk, finally having a real chance to talk about the fact that they had forgotten each other in a way nobody should forget their family, when suddenly Davenport coughed. To Julia, it seemed like he had coughed so hard he vanished, but what had actually transpired was that Davenport coughed the very second before he was pulled into a place that was familiar, but not too familiar. But, not too not as the lady sitting at one end of the table was a face he now remembered very well, despite the fact she looked...different. In every previous parley, Lucretia had appeared young, about her twenties. Now she looked like a fifty-year-old woman, and her skin also had patches that matched the snowflake obsidian pattern of the Silence. She did not look good, but then again, neither did Davenport, given he had lost an eye and an arm in previous adventures.

“Hi, Dav. Can we talk?”

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: why did nobody tell me I put 'Barry' and not 'Kravitz' at the start I can't take y'all anywhere.


End file.
